William C. Smith (father of Henry T. Smith) was the first president but the late Judge A. G. Otis soon thereafter succeeded him and remained president until 1891. Thomas Murphy (father of John Murphy and one of the builders of the present Cain Mill Company mill), W. W. Guthrie, Julius Kuhn, C. J. Drury, Col. Wm. Osborn, J. W. Parker, and other men prominent in the business and social life of that period were among its early stockholders and directors, while for seventeen years the late T. C. Platt served as teller, and by his affability and faculty of remembering people, made many friends for the institution. A baseball bat, kept under the counter, was his weapon for defending the funds in his care. Courtney Challiss, George H. Lawton, “Vode” Kathrens, Lowenholt, O. Orlopp and Will H. Bryning and others also served varying terms as early employees and will be remembered for their distinctive personalities. An apothecary’s scale for weighing gold dust was part of the early equipment, but one trial was sufficient to prove the presence of too much dust and too little gold in the commodity offered. For almost twenty years the bank ran with but few restrictions from the State, the law simply requiring it to file an annual statement of its capital, surplus, etc., with list of stockholders and officers, and publish a statement of its financial condition as of some one day in the year. Needless to say the day selected was usually one on which the deposits, loans and resources would make a satisfactory showing, but about 1890 the legislature enacted a banking law, which has since been several times perfected by amendments, which brought this and all other State banks under its provisions, and the supervision of a State bank commissioner, with cast iron restrictions as to the relative amounts of loans, cash reserves, etc., and although some of the requirements seemed unduly severe to those accustomed to the former unrestrained exercise of their own individual judgment, few would now deny that it was wise and much needed legislation.